Cabbage and soy bean paste soup

Baechu-doenjangguk 배추된장국

Hi, everybody,
I’m so excited to introduce this simple and healthy soup to you!
Korean meals are usually served with rice, soup, and other side dishes. Just in case you don’t know what doenjang is, I’m telling you that doenjang is Korean fermented soy bean paste.

You could make so many different kinds of doenjangguk using different vegetables such as spinach, potato, radish leaves, fresh mugwort (ssuk)… Of all the vegetables, baechu (napa cabbage) doenjangguk is the most basic soup and every Korean loves it. (Let me know if you find any Korean who doesn’t like this soup) : )

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I will give you a short quiz now. : ) What would you call doenjang guk made with spinach? … pause … yes, it’s called shigeumchi-doenjangguk. Shigeumchi is spinach in Korean. Heh, it’s easy, right?

When my grandmother made this soup, she always used milky rice water instead of water. Every day she made a huge amount of rice to feed her family. When she washed, rubbed, and rinsed her rice grains, she got the milky water. When she made doenjangguk, she used that milky rice water in her pot.

When I was in middle school, the lady next door ran a restaurant. She sold baechu-doenjangguk. She and my mother were friends, so we were like family. Most of her soup customers were male workers who needed a cheap and simple breakfast before starting work early in the morning. What time in the morning? Before dawn! To be ready to serve this soup, she probably should make it at 2-3 am? Her soup was very popular so that her restaurant was always crowded especially in the morning.

I saw her serving her soup to her customers. When her customer was sitting at the table, she ladled the soup into a large bowl from her huge pot and added a little barley rice (about 2 tbs?), and put it on his table. Only one side dish was there, kkaktugi (radish kimchi). That’s all! The worker’s stomach will get warm with the hot soup and a little bit of rice!

I used to wake up with the irresistible aroma from the soup she made. Sometimes the smell made me go crazy! : )

Her doenjangguk was not spicy and a little brown and milky. It was super tasty!
I saw she used flour instead of rice water. She made this doenjangguk exactly this way I’m showing in this video recipe. Only thing I skipped is MSG. : ) Instead of MSG, I use more dried anchovies.

I miss her now. We lost connection long time ago when my family moved to another place.

Served this today for dinner. Made a double batch to be sure there was enough. This is bapdoduk. Served with spicy tofu. I got my recipe mixed up with doenjang jjigae, and had already cut up some zucchini and some onion so I tossed those in as well. Couldn’t hurt. Everyone had seconds. I’m a star with this recipe.

OMG this is delicous. I made this last night and it turned out so good :) I had cooked shrimp earlier, so I used the shrimp shells to make a stock then used it along with the dried anchovies for this recipe. TASTY! Garlic goes so well with this. Next time, I’m adding even more!

omg omg omg… I made this again yesterday :) This time I adjusted it to my own taste by doubling the garlic, using a lot less liquid, and increasing the flour significantly. mmm I like it thick like a stew like that. And the anchovy or something similar is an absolute must for this recipe. I happen to use Hondashi (japanese instant dashi powder) just because its easy and I have it on hand already and need to use it up :) LOVE LOVE LOVE the briny, earthy doenjang flavor in this… (i increased that a LOT too lol)… THIS RECIPE IS AWESOME!!!! THANK YOU MISS MAANGCHI!!!!!